


The Other Woman

by ClaraHolsworthy



Series: two to ten years: a journey [10]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, Emotional Affair, Gen, Marriage, Poetry, Surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:26:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22587658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaraHolsworthy/pseuds/ClaraHolsworthy
Series: two to ten years: a journey [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/702987





	The Other Woman

"I'm not dead yet," you say  
as we stand in the kitchen  
and listen to them laugh  
  
I have heard this line before (many times)  
but this is the first time that I have seen it -  
your face contorting as the thought forms;  
the flood of frustrated tears that follow it.  
  
he has chosen his second wife  
before his first has even passed  
  
I watch you cry; distraught, and tired, and lonely,  
and the only thing I can fix is the physical  
so I take the list of chores from your curled fist  
and wish your other burdens were so easy to lift  
  
we turn tears into busy hands as we hear them in the other room;  
him more alive now than he has been since he left surgery  
and it is no longer possible to simply hate the man  
because I cherish his laugh as much as I despise your tears  
because he could have died in the hands of strangers  
but now he is laughing and happy and _alive_  
and if we both have to grit our teeth and suffer  
through her three hour unsolicited invitation into our home  
then we will  
  
because at least he is alive enough to laugh  
and you are still alive enough to cry


End file.
